W. Bruce Cameron's new book takes a different twist on the human-animal bond

Imagine that your dog never dies. He just keeps being reincarnated as a puppy of a different breed and gender.

What would the purpose of that be?

From that simple premise, author and columnist W. Bruce Cameron has created a whole world of canine possibility in his debut novel, “A Dog’s Purpose,” which goes on sale Tuesday.

Besides crafting a compelling tale, Cameron has used the book to help animal nonprofits across the country, including in the Denver metro area. But more on that later.

To write this book, Cameron had to see the world through the eyes of a dog. Fortunately, he and his family are long-time dog lovers.

“Dogs are a joy,” says the writer, whose family humor column is read by an estimated 3 million people (including subscribers of The Denver Post).

“I had to put myself in the position of dogs,” he explains. “They don’t understand a lot of words. I had to listen to conversations for words they understand, such as ‘car ride.’ ”

The rest the dogs interpret their own way.

For example, there is this scene in the book about a Golden Retriever named Bailey as he interacts with his young owner:

“One of my favorite things to do was to learn new tricks, as the boy called them, which consisted of him speaking to me in encouraging tones and then he would climb on my rear end, forcing me to the ground, and then he would feed me a dog biscuit.”

Another one:

“And one day I thought I saw the black cat in the woods and took off in hot pursuit … and as I got closer, (she) revealed that she was something else entirely, with white stripes down her black body. … She wasn’t running, which I figured meant she wanted to play, but when I jumped in to paw at her, the animal did a most curious thing, turning away from me, her tail still in the air.”

The book is a new twist on the old theme of the human-animal bond, sure to generate a lot of smiles as well as an emotional punch. One reader, the world-renowned animal scientist Temple Grandin, said: “It really made me think about the purpose of life. At the end, I cried.”

Cameron previously wrote two non-fiction books. One of them, “Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter,” was made into a television series starring the late John Ritter. A second book, “How to Remodel a Man,” is now undergoing treatment for television, he says.

Cameron has strong Colorado connections. He lived in Evergreen for 12 years and it was during this time that the now closed Rocky Mountain News gave him his first break as a writer, becoming the first newspaper to print his column. The Post has since picked the column up.

His daughter, Georgia Lee Cameron, is still on the board of Nikeno’s Second Chances in Denver, an animal charity that rescues the most difficult to place animals and restores their health and trains them so they can find a permanent home.

Bruce Cameron, who now lives in the Los Angeles area because it is a center for his type of work, has retained the family devotion to animals. He made arrangements with 33 animal charities nationwide, including Denver’s Dumb Friends League, to give them 10 percent of the proceeds of every copy of “A Dog’s Purpose” that was pre-ordered.

The program has ended and the income is being counted.

“It’s a great way to give back to the community,” Cameron says. “Dogs need to be rescued no matter how challenging the conditions.”

At present he is working on another novel, this one about a boy and a Grizzly bear. Cameron says it will be in the same spirit as “A Dog’s Purpose.”

Will it be written from a bear’s perspective? We’ll have to wait and see.

“A Dog’s Purpose,” Forge Books, 319 pages, $22.99.

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PET CALENDAR

Speaking of communication – Have you ever wondered what dogs are saying to each other or what your dog is trying to tell you? The Humane Society of Boulder Valley is offering an hour-long presentation that will examine pictures and analyze video footage of pet dogs interacting with people and other dogs. This workshop is geared to all guardians interested in a better understanding of their dog’s behavior and is especially beneficial for those resolving behavior problems in their dogs including fear, dog-dog reactivity, and aggression to people. Information: Boulderhumane.org

Calling all furry models – The Dumb Friends League is searching for the next top pet models to serve as pin-ups in their 2011 calendar. Pet owners can submit photographs of their cat, dog or other critters for a chance to be featured as a “Pet of the Month.” All qualified photographs will be included in the full-color, wall calendar, and every entrant will receive a free 2011 calendar. Contest submissions are accepted online at ddfl.org or by mail. All entries must be postmarked by Aug. 15, and the entry fee is $35 per photograph, with proceeds benefiting the Dumb Friends League.

Dog Whisperer in Aspen – The non-profit Friends of the Aspen Animal Shelter is bringing Cesar Millan to Aspen on July 10 for a series of events to raise money for their spay/neuter and animal welfare programs. Tickets to an Aspen District Theater event are available at the Wheeler Opera House (970-920-5770) or through www.aspenshowtix.com.

While other scientists are dubious, the author of the latest study called the findings promising, according to an article on Healthday.com.

“The dogs are certainly recognizing the odor of a molecule that is produced by cancer cells,” said French researcher Jean-Nicolas Cornu at Hospital Tenon in Paris.

The problem, he said, is that “we do not know what this molecule is, and the dog cannot tell us.”

But if it can be made to work, it would mark an improvement over the current form of detection. Prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, blood tests administered to some 30 million American men each year are rife with false positives.

To conduct this study, two researchers spent a year training a Belgian Malinois shepherd to differentiate between urine samples from men with prostate cancer and men without.Read more…

Gov. Bill Ritter has signed a law to broaden civil protection orders in Colorado to include pets. It includes threats or acts of violence against pets as part of the definition of abuse of spouses, the elderly and at-risk adults.

Dr. Frank Ascione, a psychologist who heads the institute, testified in the legislature on behalf of the bill introduced by Sen. Linda Newell and Rep. Jerry Frangas. Ascione has done research that shows that pets sometimes are used as leverage against abuse victims.

Before coming to DU, he joined several other researchers in a 2007 study of domestic violence and animal abuse. It asked 100 women who had not been abused by their spouses whether their pets had. Only 5 percent said yes. When 100 women who had been abused were asked if their pets had, too, 54 percent said yes.

“Senate Bill 80 will give law enforcement the ability to protect families, children and those who are at-risk,” said Gov. Ritter. “This legislation fills a gap between civil and criminal law to protect families.”

Rep. Newell added: “Abusers and stalkers often follow a ‘pattern of crime over time’: damage property, injure or kill a pet, then attack their victim. This will close a gap in our law to provide law enforcement and the courts with another tool to prevent domestic violence and potentially save lives.”

Ascione and his team at the institute have been studying the many – and sometimes unexpected – ways pets influence the behavior and well-being of humans. They recently launched an ambitious effort to examine how animal abuse cases are handled through every step of the system in Colorado.

On April 1, the ASPCA launched “Fight Animal Cruelty,” a web component that is accessible via www.aspca.org. The website includes a comprehensive anti-cruelty database allowing users to learn about humane laws and designated penalties in their state and a humane directory to locate local humane law enforcement agencies. The site section also includes anti-cruelty prevention tips and links to articles, success stories and online advocacy campaigns.

Weight: Pet owners should take steps to provide their pet with a nutritious, balanced diet, complemented by daily exercise to ensure their pet’s weight remains within the recommended range (which varies by breed and animal).

Pain Management: In the wild, showing pain makes an animal easy prey. So if a pet is in pain, their instinct is to hide it. However, ignoring or overlooking changes in a pet’s behavior may lead to a small problem becoming much bigger.Changes in attitude, activity levels and ability or interest in regular activities like climbing stairs or taking walks are clues that help veterinarians diagnose pain.

Parasites: Fleas, ticks and other parasites flourish in warmer temperatures and often live in areas pets love to explore. Many parasites found on pets can be transmitted to humans. Regular check-ups keep pets parasite-free and their owner’s skin from crawling.

Wellness: For pets, an annual check-up is like going to the doctor once in seven years. During that time a lot can change, making annual wellness exams critical to quality pet care. Thorough examinations and screenings are key to catching small problems before they become more difficult to manage.

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PET CALENDAR

Colorado State University veterinarians will provide free eye exams to service dogs on May 22 at the university’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Guide dogs, handicapped assistance dogs, detection dogs and search and rescue dogs can participate in the eye exam event with an appointment. Registration for appointments ends May 16. The hospital is at 300 W. Drake Road in Fort Collins. To qualify, dogs must be active working dogs who are certified by a formal training program or organization or currently enrolled in a formal training program. The certifying organization must be national, regional or local.

To obtain a free exam, service dog owners must complete two separate steps. Owners must first register their animal via an online registration form at www.acvoeyeexam.org by May 16. Once registered online, the owner should contact the CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital at (970)-297-4137. Appointments are available from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“We have seen a significant increase of that in Wyoming. It’s disturbing,” he told the reporter who wrote the story.

Poachers run down deer with cars or snowmobiles, and chase raccoons, then beat them to death with clubs. They also shoot deer, elk and antelope, sometimes removing valuable antlers but often leaving the carcass to rot on the ground, Talbott and other wildlife officials said.

The number of poachers ignoring wildlife laws is also on the rise across Colorado, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Officers write about 2,150 tickets a year to hunters; 200 are for serious poaching crimes such as thrill-killing.

The circumstances surrounding the death of a German Shepherd mix dog dragged to death at the Colorado National Monument last week are still emerging. So we need to take care to avoid racing to conclusions before all the facts are known.

But at this point, authorities believe the stolen dog named Buddy was tied to a vehicle and deliberately pulled to his death in a horrifying manner.

The reaction around the country has ranged from revulsion to calls for vengeance against the alleged perpetrator.

It’s hard to know quite how to react when such an awful thing happens. It hits most of us like a kick in the gut because pets are so trusting and helpless against the cruelty of human beings. We weep for the animals that are killed and demand that justice be served against the abusers.

Yes, justice must be served if a suspect is convicted after receiving due process under the law.

But that’s not the only thing we can do for Buddy.

I have a proposition. What if everyone who is saddened and angered about Buddy’s plight turned tragedy into a positive?

There are many good organizations and lots of good people who are doing their very best to make life better for all the homeless pets in our community. Why not help them with a little money or a donation of needed supplies? They would love it and you could help save some lives,

Wanted: One human, must be active and willing to put up with an adventurous animal pal. (Oh, and must be able to supply pal with food and shelter.)

The Humane Society of Boulder Valley has been using its own type of want-ads to match prospective owners with cats up for adoption.

The “ads” in this case are color-coded.

A cat with a “purple” code is quiet and reserved.

An “orange” cat is a middle-of-the road “shape-shifter,” sometimes qiuiet and sometimes active.

A “green” cat is the most outgoing, most demanding and needs the most exercise.

The goal of Boulder Valley’s program is to reduce the return rate of cats by “bringing a person and a pet together differently,” said Brigette Chesne, director of shelter pragrams.

Boulder Valley has had the program four years and it seems to be working.

“Our percentage (of adopted cats that get returned to the shelter) is 9-12 percent. Nationally, other shelters have rates from 25 to 40 percent,” Chesne said.

“The idea is that if we could categorize cats we could do a better job of matching them. We can suggest a specific cat for a specific person,” she explained.

The program is operated under the auspices of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It was developed by Dr. Emily Weiss, with whom Boulder Valley had a preivious relationship.

“We were among several shelters that kicked off the program – the only one in Colorado,” Chesne said, . (Dr. Weiss) helped us get our program going.”

Chesne said the program calls for an evaluation of all cats entering the shelter.

A cat’s general ‘”feline-ality,” including valiance, playfulness,and adaptability, is assessed. Each cat is scored and then categorized. Each category is color-coded and describes the cats’ feline-ality in common language terms.

Each animal’s classification is listed on its kennel card at the shelter, as well as on their individual dossier page on Boulder Valley’s web site.

” We don’t do an assessment until the cats have been here for three days,” Chesne said. “It did lengthen cats’ stays with us.”

In step two, a client fills out a survey about what sort of attributes the client is looking for. It asks them to identify how they envision a new cat fitting into their home and family.

Following a review of the questionnaire, staff give each adopter a color-coded Guest Pass and direct them to cats that match the color of their passes, ensuring the best match for both adopters and cats.

“If you can anticpate what the cat is going to do, we can offer kind of a predictor,” Chesne said. “The adopter knows exaxtly what to expect.”

Most cats adopted fall in orange category, she said.

And who gets green cats? “Those of us who love the feisty terrier dogs love the same kind of cat and active lifestyle.,” Chesne said.

A battle is raging in California over the practice of declawing cats. And even though it has not spread to other states, veterinarians around the country are keeping an eye on its progress.

This is a fight with several combatants.

* There’s the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Paw Project, which sees declawing as an inhumane treatment that leaves felines debilitated.
Jennifer Conrad, founder of the Paw Project, said California is at the forefront nationwide in banning the procedure. It has been prohibited or condemned in a number of European countries

* There’s the California Veterinary Medical Association, which wants to keep declawing as an option in veterinarians’ medical toolbags.
The association also argues that modern procedures such as laser surgery make the procedure less troublesome.

* There’s the state legislature, which, at the behest of the association, passed a law making it illegal for cities to outlaw the procedure. The law, however, does not go into effect until 2010. So various California cities – 6 so far and more pending – have passed municipal ordinances against declawing.

“I find this practice to be a prima facie instance of animal cruelty, and I don’t need Big Brother in Sacramento or a veterinary board to tell me otherwise,” Beverly Hills City Councilman John A. Mirisch told the Los Angeles Times.

The Times said Mirisch’s sentiments were echoed at a Los Angeles City Council meeting by Paul Koretz, who co-sponsored the Los Angeles motion for a ban: “I don’t think we should allow people at the state level to dictate to us our local actions.”

The object of all the legal moves and policy passion is the surgical procedure known technically as onychectomy. A veterinarian, using a scalpel, clippers or a laser, cuts off the last bone on each toe on a cat’s feet.

It is generally done at the request of owners to stop destructive cats from scratching furniture or their owners themselves. Scratching is a leading cause of felines being relinquished to animal shelters.

But critics think the surgery goes too far.

The Paw Project puts it this way on its website: “While some felines will have immediate complications from the procedure, it may be many months or years before the damaging effects of declawing become obvious. Declawing may result in permanent lameness, arthritis, and other long-term complications.”

Among the complications may be an aversion to using a litterbox, because the litter material may be painful to the declawed cat.

Veterinarians reply that declawing, whatever its drawbacks, may be better than the alternatives.

“If it comes down to a cat being euthanized, losing its home or losing its claws,” California Veterinary Medical Association president Mark Nunez told the L.A. Times, “being euthanized or losing its home is a worse outcome.”

That view is echoed by a Denver veterinarian, Dr. Heather Reeder of the Cat Care Society.

“I don’t do declaws by choice and I work with an organization that does not do declaws,” Reeder said. “But I would still stand up for the right to do it.”

“Veterinarians want the right to choose,” she said. “They don’t want it to be mandated.”

Reeder, who once worked for the Dumb Friends League, said she has seen instances where cats have been relinquished to the shelter because of scratching.

“It might also be medically necessary for the owner,” Reeder said, recalling a severely diabetic owner who did not heal well from scratches.

“You want to be able to evaluate the situation on a case-by-case basis,” she said.

The California cities with ordinances against cat declawing are Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Berkeley and Santa Monica.

Last Friday, Greeley police reported finding 102 animals in a house including 30 dead cats, 52 live ones and rabbits, rats, 10 dogs and two guinea pigs. No one was home at the time.
In late July, more than 400 animals were rescued from a suspected hoarding situation at a West Oahu, Hawaii, property.
Days later, authorities found 260 living and dead Chihuahuas in a garbage-strewn Dearborn, Mich. home.
Sound familiar? It should. According to the Englewood-based Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), nearly 250,000 animals are victims of animal hoarding each year.
HSUS says this abuse differs from other types of animal cruelty in that the perpetrators don’t always accept or recognize the cruelty they inflict on their animals. Rather, animal hoarders usually ardently believe they are saving or rescuing the animals they imprison.
In a recent article in the Detroit Free Press, Dale Bartlett, a spokesman for the society, said: “These people are driven to acquire animals … and quite often they believe in their hearts and souls that they are the only people who can care for a particular group of animals.”
In many instances, such as in the Dearborn case, conditions are often filthy and can lead to medical problems for the animals.
“They believe they are saving the animals’ lives when in fact when one animal is sick, they’re infecting the other animals,” Linda Lawrence, a veterinary social worker at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University, told the Free Press “It just does not connect that they are hurting them.”
Dr. Gerald Shiener, a Wayne State University psychiatrist, told the paper a condition often prevalent among hoarders is obsessive compulsive disorder, which is characterized by repetitive and ritualized thoughts and actions. He said it is a serious condition that can cause a person to lose social skills.
“These people lose a sense of what’s socially appropriate,” Shiener said. “No one would live surrounded by dogs and dog feces unless they had some sort of underlying problem.”
Treatment is difficult and has a low rate of success, the HSUS says on its website. Typically a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and some type of psychopharmacological intervention is recommended.
Removing animals from the hoarding situation can temporarily help solve the problem, the society says, but without long-term psychological intervention, animal hoarding has a nearly 100 percent recidivism rate.
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Here’s a new one: Finch-fighting.
Authorities recently arrested 19 people from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey and seized 150 birds in a house raid on an alleged bird-fighting operation, according to an Associated Press report.. Most of the birds were saffron finches, which are small birds native to South America, and a few were canaries, officials said.
Police said they made the arrests just as spectators had placed bets and were getting ready to watch the birds fight at a home in Shelton, just west of New Haven, Conn. Authorities say they seized $8,000 in alleged betting money.
Authorities often deal with cock fighting, but police and animal experts said they had not heard of fighting involving finches and canaries before.
“We’re blazing new territory,” Wayne Kasacek, an assistant director with the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, was quoted as saying. “This is something for law enforcement and for us to learn about.”
Experts say finches can be territorial and aggressive if placed in overcrowded conditions.
“There’s usually a greater amount of space needed for welfare and comfort for finches than you would think,” said Dr. Brian Speer, co-author of “Birds for Dummies.”
Canaries are normally passive, but also can be aggressive if overcrowded, Speer said.
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Heemeyer, my overweight black Labrador, has been given the okay to resume normal activities after operations for torn ACLs in both of his back legs. And not a moment too soon. He weighed in Friday at nearly 17 pounds overweight. Let this be a lesson for you (and an expensive one for me): Don’t let your dog get overweight and place too much stress on his body.

PET CALENDAR

Parade of Ponds – The Misha May Foundation in Lakewood will hold its 11th Annual Parade of Ponds Tour on Aug. 29-30. The foundation will received 100 percent of the proceeds from tickets purchased through Misha May, whose mission is to provide options, training and rehabilitation for homeless mixed-breed dogs, or any dogs in need, until they find a permanent home. Contact mishamayfoundation@gmail.comAnimal studies –
Morris Animal Foundation is announcing 35 new companion animal studies. The foundation will fund more than 200 new, continuing and veterinary student scholar studies in 2009-2010. These studies are available for study sponsorship—which is a a way to help support research leading to treatments and prevention strategies for diseases Sponsorships start at $3,000 . Contact the Denver-based foundation at sponsorship@MorrisAnimalFoundation.org

In August 2006, an 11-year-old Gypsum boy stabbed his black-and-white Labrador mix dog in a fit of anger after fighting with his brother. The dog, Spike, yelped, limped into the kitchen and died in a pool of his own blood.

When his mother was asked if the boy had exhibited that kind of anger previously, she told investigators that he had been abused by her former boyfriend when the family lived in Arizona.

Once again, something had gone terribly wrong with the human-animal link.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who murdered randomly at Columbine High School in 1999, may have also been animal abusers. According to a leading psychiatrist, violent criminals often have childhood histories of animal abuse.

Mental health professionals and law enforcement officials have long recognized the link between animal abuse and violence towards humans. The FBI uses animal abuse as an indicator in profiling serial killers.

Such incidents generally are widely recognized. What is less known, perhaps, is that two Denver area animal welfare organizations have been instrumental in groundbreaking research seeking information into the link between violence to people and violence to animals.

“There’s a lot of attention to creating more science around The Link,” said David Gies, executive director of the Animal Assistance Foundation, which began with a large endowment from animal lover and Coors family member Louise C. Harrison. “We’re working to better understand animal cruelty.”

Travel and OutWest editor Kyle Wagner grew up in Pittsburgh and lived in Lake County, Ill., and Naples, Fla., before moving to Denver in 1993, where she reviewed restaurants for Westword before moving to The Denver Post in 2002. She considers the best days to be those that involve her teenage daughters and doing something outside, preferably mountain biking or whitewater rafting.

Dean Krakel is a photo editor (primarily sports) at The Denver Post. A native of Wyoming, he has authored three books, "Season of the Elk," "Downriver" and "Krakel's West." An avid kayaker, rafter, mountain biker, trail runner, telemark skier and backpacker, Dean's outdoor adventures have taken him around the world.

Douglas Brown was raised about 30 miles west of Philadelphia in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he spent a lot of time running around in the woods and fields (where he hunted and explored), and in the ocean (where he surfed and stared at the horizon). Now he lives in Boulder and spends as much time hiking, running, skiing and boarding the High Country (and the Boulder foothills) as possible.

Ricardo Baca is the entertainment editor and pop music critic at The Denver Post, as well as the founder and executive editor of Reverb and the co-founder of The UMS. Happy days often involve at least one of these: whitewater rafting, snowshoeing, vintage Vespas, writing, camping, live music, road trips, snowboarding or four-wheeling.